Undertaking a Successful Project Audit

By Michael Stanleigh

A project audit provides an opportunity to uncover issues, concerns andchallenges encountered during the project lifecycle. Conducted midwaythrough the project, an audit affords the project manager, projectsponsor and project team an interim view of what has gone well, as wellas what needs to be improved to successfully complete the project. Ifdone at the close of a project, the audit can be used to develop successcriteria for future projects by providing a forensic review. This reviewidentifies which elements of the project were successfully managed andwhich ones presented challenges. As a result, the review will help theorganisation identify what it needs to do to avoid repeating the same mistakes on future projects.

Regardless of whether the project audit is conducted mid-term on a project or at its conclusion,the process is similar. It is generally recommended that an outside facilitator conduct the projectaudit. This ensures confidentiality, but also allows the team members and other stakeholders to becandid. They know that their input will be valued and the final report will not identify individualnames, only facts. Often, individuals involved in a poorly managed project will find that speakingwith an outside facilitator during a project audit allows them to openly express their emotions andfeelings about their involvement in the project and/or the impact the project has had on them.This "venting" is an important part of the overall audit.

A successful project audit consists of three phases:

Success Criteria, Questionnaire, and Audit Interview Development.1.In-depth Research.2.Report Development.3.

Phase 1: Success Criteria, Questionnaire, and Audit

Interview Development

1. Success Criteria Development

Interview the core project sponsor and project manager to determine their "success criteria" forthe project audit, find out what they expect to gain from the audit. This ensures that theirindividual and collective needs are met.

2. Questionnaire Development

Develop a questionnaire to be sent to each member of the core project team and to selectedstakeholders. Often, individuals will complete the questionnaire in advance of an interview becauseit helps them to gather and focus their thoughts. The actual interview will give the facilitator theopportunity to gain deeper insights into the team member's comments. The questionnaire simplyserves as a catalyst for helping team members and stakeholders reflect on the project'ssuccesses, failures, challenges and missed opportunities.

3. Audit Interview Questions

There are many questions that can be asked in an audit interview. It is most effective, however, todevelop open-ended questions, i.e., questions that cannot be answered with a simple "yes" or"no." Develop interview questions that will help identify the major project successes; the majorproject issues, concerns and challenges; how the team worked together; how vendors weremanaged; how reporting and meetings were handled; how risk and change were managed, etc.

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Questionnaires can be used for team members and/or other stakeholders who are unable toattend an interview.

Phase 2: In-depth Research

Conduct individual research interviews with the project sponsor, project manager and projectteam members to identify past, current and future issues, concerns, challenges andopportunities.

1.

Conduct individual research interviews with stakeholders, including vendors, suppliers,contractors, other internal and external project resources and selected customers.

2.

Assess the issues, challenges and concerns in more depth to discover the root causes of anyproblems.

3.

Review all historical and current documentation related to the project, including teamstructure, scope statement, business requirements, project plan, milestone reports, meetingminutes, action items, risk logs, issue logs and change logs.

4.

Review the project plan to determine how the vendor plan has been incorporated into theoverall project plan.

5.

Interview selected stakeholders to identify and determine their initial expectations for theproject and determine to what extent their expectations have been met.

6.

Review the project quality management and the product quality management to identifyissues, concerns and challenges in the overall management of the project. Identify anyopportunities that can be realised through improvements to the attention of project andproduct quality.

7.

Identify any lessons learned that could improve the performance of future projects within theorganisation.

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Phase 3: Report Development

Compile the information collected from all of the interviews.1.Compile the information collected from individuals who only completed the questionnaire.2.Consolidate the findings from the project documentation review.3.Identify the issues, concerns and challenges presented through the review of the projectquality management and product quality management plans and isolate the opportunities youbelieve may be realised.

4.

Identify all of the project's issues, concerns and challenges.5.Identify all of the project's opportunities that can be realised through the report'srecommendations.

6.

Identify the lessons learned that can improve the performance of future projects within theorganisation.

7.

Finalise the creation of the report and recommendations based on the findings and presentthe detailed report and recommendations, including a road map to get future projects to the"next level" of performance.

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Conclusion

The purpose of a project audit is to identify lessons learned that can help improve the performanceof a project or improve the performance of future projects by undertaking a forensic review touncover problems to be avoided. In this way, project audits are highly beneficial to theorganisation and provide the following outcomes:

Development of lessons learned on the project that can be applied to both the organisationand its vendors.Development of strategies which, if implemented within the organisation, will increase thelikelihood of future projects being managed successfully.Development of strategies which, if implemented within the organisation, will increase thelikelihood of change initiatives being managed successfully.Development of project success criteria which might include on-time, on-budget, meetingcustomer and other stakeholder requirements, transition to next phase successfullyexecuted, etc.Recognition of risk management so that risk assessment and the development of associatedcontingency plans becomes commonplace within the organisation.Development of change management success criteria which might include how staff are

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involved, how customers are impacted, how the organisation is impacted, transition to nextlevel of change to be initiated, etc.Development of criteria that will continue the improvement of relationships between theorganisation and its vendors, suppliers and contractors regarding the management ofprojects.Application of the lessons learned on the project to future projects within the organisation.

Michael Stanleigh is President of Business Improvement Architects, a consulting firm thatguides organisations to align their business strategy with their culture, performance systems andprojects to reduce waste and increase profitability. Author of the global report, "From Crisis toControl: A New Era in Strategic Project Management," you may reach him at mstanleigh@bia.ca.

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